Student LifeMy Internship at a Swiss Private Bank

Finance specialization student Camille Lee is currently on internship at Rothschild & Co in Zurich.

Rothschild & Co is one of the world's largest independent financial advisory groups that provides advice on mergers & acquisitions, strategy and financing, as well as investment and wealth management solutions. We caught up with Camille to chat about her experience working in a private bank in Zurich, Switzerland.

Why did you choose Finance specialization at HIM?

After graduating from high school, I was originally planning to study Accounting and Finance in the UK as I’d always been good with numbers. However, once I’ve looked further into the program, I realized it would actually be pretty boring as it was lacking the human interaction.

I am originally from Mauritius, an island with booming tourism. Growing up, we stayed at a lot of hotels and I always wanted to get the best quality of service so I decided to discover the other side of it by studying hospitality.

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And the fact that HIM had a Finance specialization actually hit the sweet spot by combining both numbers and hospitality.

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How did you find your internship at Rothschild & Co?

I got my internship all on my own by applying through LinkedIn. Rothschild & Co had internships available in different countries and I sent a spontaneous application. It was the last thing I expected to get but I received an invitation for the first interview and the rest is history!

What skills is Rothhschild & Co looking for in their interns?

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While I had the interest in numbers and a fairly good understanding of finance, during the interview I told the recruiters that I didn’t have finance working experience. To this they responded: “You are here to learn and we are here to guide you”.

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Rothschild & Co have a very modern approach to hiring their interns, they really look for diversity in candidates’ backgrounds and degrees and mostly focus on your soft skills. On their website, they say: “We seek individuals who can demonstrate the following: Good communication skills, Drive and ambition, Sound judgement, Creativity, Execution excellence, Presence, Teamwork and Numeracy”. And I can really see that this is not just empty words, they do practice what they preach.

How is Finance specialization helping you in your internship?

I really enjoyed the Finance specialization courses. They gave me a good understanding of finance basics, helped me be more confident and understand all the jargon used in the corporate finance environment. Thanks to the specialization, I learned a lot of technical financial aspects I didn’t know before.

But I also realize now that it’s not only about finance knowledge.

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The soft skills we learn at HIM are useful in any industry: your communication and persuasion skills, being humble, really understanding your internal and external customers and the ability to work in a multicultural team. Thanks to that, I find it easy to relate to colleagues from various departments.

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What are your responsibilities?

I am supporting the Management Information Systems and Accounting teams and do everything in terms of forecasts, budgets, analysis of costs and liaising with different department heads and the CFO.

I have regular one-on-one meetings with my boss to understand the priorities and split the workload. I am learning a lot and I am so happy I found an internship that helps me put my theoretical finance knowledge into practice.

Camille Lee will graduate from Hotel Institute Montreux with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management with a Specialization in Finance in 2019